The Minimalist Educator Podcast
A podcast about paring down to focus on the purpose and priorities in our roles.
The Minimalist Educator Podcast
BONUS Season 5 Preview: Conversations That Transform Teaching
Christine and Tammy celebrate the launch of Season 5 of The Minimalist Educator podcast by previewing their engaging lineup of education experts and thought leaders who share insights on streamlining work and preserving wellbeing!
• Ming Shelby returns to discuss the transformative power of positivity in difficult conversations
• Dr. Monica Burns returns to explores ethical AI use as an assistant rather than replacement for teachers
• Craig Randal introduces his trust-based observation framework that simplifies teacher evaluations
• Steven Puri shares productivity techniques from his Hollywood experience that help educators find flow
• John Spencer offers practical approaches to increasing student agency and engagement
• Each conversation centers on minimalist principles: simplifying processes, clarifying priorities, and finding greater purpose
Today's episode was brought to you by Plan Z Education Services: forward-thinking educator support. Find out more at planzeducations.com. If today's episode helped you rethink, reimagine, reduce or realign something in your practice, share it in a comment or with a colleague.
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The Minimalist Educator Podcast is a Plan Z Education Services adventure.
Welcome to the Minimalist Educator podcast, where the focus is on a less is more approach to education. Join your hosts, christine Arnold and Tammy Musiawski, authors of the Minimalist Teacher and your School Leadership. Edit a minimalist approach to rethinking your school ecosystem each week as they explore practical ways to simplify your work, sharpen your focus and amplify what matters most so you can teach and lead with greater clarity, purpose and joy.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Welcome, Tammy. How are you?
Speaker 3:I'm great, I'm really excited that we are kicking off season five, which is very wild to me, that we are still well, I shouldn't be surprised that we're still talking about this, but just with you know, we keep finding these amazing guests to come on. We have so many things to talk about, and so it's really exciting, I think, for us to just be kicking the season off with another set of really interesting educators and non-educators. We have someone new that popped into our season this year.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I feel like every single guest we've had, we want them back on for a second go. Don't you think the short conversation has not been enough?
Speaker 3:we want more yeah, and I think I I think it's important that we do stick to our you know kind of 30 minute podcast. Um, just because this is you know kind of what we preach, like bite-sized chunk your stuff, and it's important to us to have that 20 to 30 minute conversation with people. But I do love that we have had last season we had some guests as repeat visitors to have a part, to kind of catch up on you know what they've been doing since the last conversation or the previous conversation we had with them. And so, yeah, I'm pretty sure that all of the guests from this season would be happy to come back, because there was definitely so much more to talk about and we had quite a range of topics again, but all related to streamlining or prioritizing, finding systems that work, how to make our work better, more efficient and, you know, try to preserve ourselves in the process.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. No, we're very lucky to be able to get to have these conversations with all these incredible thinkers and educators. It's very, very special. I want to start with talking about our number two conversation with Ming Shelby. Always a pleasure to have Ming on the podcast. She was really building on that previous conversation that we had in past seasons about the power of positivity and how that can really be transformational in the work that we're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and she's one of those just really ideal people for that work, because she is very I think I might've called her sunshiny or something, but she's just, she exudes that and, and so even though she you know she gave us an example of a challenging conversation that she had she does, she does these things that don't make it feel gross or icky or stressful, and I think that's something we can really learn from, because in our roles we do have difficult conversations and it's hard to approach them sometimes, but if we put things in a positive perspective or strengths-based or with a little bit of humor, it can bring down the stress for both the person bringing up the conversation and the person receiving it. So, yeah, she's just such a great person to talk to and listen to and how to frame conversations.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. Oh yeah, monica Burns is another repeat as well, back from season one, coming back again in season five. Such a relevant, timely conversation as well. Like really starting to think about how we can use AI to lessen our workload, to help us out, but also to think, you know, about that ethical use and how can we tread carefully with what we're doing around AI. Such a great, timely conversation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she was one of our very first guests, maybe even the very first one we had. So episode four or five is episode 81 this season. So we've talked to lots of people. You know talked a little bit about AI in different conversations, but she is really she's been at the forefront of ed tech for quite a long time and so I mean we did talk a little bit about AI when we first talked with her.
Speaker 3:But the idea that you know, ai can be scary but it doesn't have to be and we can really use our advantage as, like, an assistant to just help us with tasks and help us to prioritize or help us to get a thought process going or something, and then you know, just be opening open about how we are using it. It doesn't have to be, you know, something that we hide or something that's unethical because we're not using it to like, do stuff for us. It's as a support and I think if we think about it that way on the broader scale, it feels less scary for teachers especially, who you know are worried about students potentially plagiarizing or you know whatever. But there's there isn't any research showing that that's the case. So you know that's a positive from that, and we just have to learn as it grows, you know but I think it's quite interesting as well.
Speaker 2:As you said, we we did talk to her in the first season, which was back in 2023, right, and so just thinking about how much it has grown and changed between our first conversation and this conversation in this season is quite remarkable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah for sure, yeah, always good to talk to her. Yeah, always good to talk to her. I really enjoyed talking to someone who is out of our network but reached out and wanted to chat about their work with trust-based observations. That was Craig Randattle.
Speaker 3:Really interesting and just, I think, one of those elements of education that can be overlooked, right, because we're talking about observations. They happen in, you know, most schools, almost all schools, but the approaches, the feelings, the trust is all it's very different, and so this approach for trust-based observations was really enlightening and it just made me really wish and hope for schools to adopt something like it or, you know, reach out to him or something, because you really can streamline an observation or evaluation cycle. Right, it doesn't have to be complicated, it doesn't have to take the six hours that usually it takes to do that whole process with a teacher. It would be lovely to spend, you know, as a school leader, to spend all that time with one individual, but we know it's not realistic in most schools unless you're teeny, tiny. But yeah, that was really really interesting to talk to him, so that that conversation stood out for me.
Speaker 2:And it just when he was talking to us, it just made so much sense, didn't it? You know, because there's so many frameworks and ideas out there that are, you know. You know, because there's so many frameworks and ideas out there that are, you know, how can we improve teacher effectiveness or professionalism or, you know, encourage growth. Some of them are evaluative, some of them are a bit judgmental, some of them are self-reflective. But when he was talking, and just that simple idea of like humans are going to respond if trust is extended to them first, it's like, well, of course, of course, it just, it all just makes so much more sense it.
Speaker 3:It's so logical. But why do we work against logic? It's so strange and it happens all the time, but and you know, it's sometimes the parameters of our systems. Well, it usually is, but yeah, it just it was so logical and so refreshing to just talk about. You know, he was a school leader, so he lived it and he's like this is what we have to do.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's great, definitely. Also really enjoyed the conversation with Stephen Puri Again, a little bit different conversation for us, someone who's not in education but has done a lot of thinking around being productive and how we can be efficient, how we can get in that flow state to really get the most out of our time. Um, fascinating conversation, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:yeah, he was really fun to talk to, um, just because his experience is so different from ours, you know, coming from working hollywood behind the scenes on bigger movies and but seeing the parallels to real life, and it was easy to see the connection between the work he's done there and what we try to do in schools or as consultants, people running their own businesses. There needs to be some kind of system for all of us to be able to be, you know, not necessarily like the overachieving productivity masters that sometimes, you know, we, we like, go crazy with things, but just like he's got a simple tool that he talks about that just helps you kind of manage your time and your tasks and projects. And it may, again, it makes sense. But we work against the grain a lot of the times because we want to be, we want to be extra. But yeah, he was for sure, yeah, and I mean we've had a few more guests for sure.
Speaker 3:But another person who I have admired from afar for a number of years was John Spencer, who does a lot of work around student engagement, deep learning, inquiry processes, and so I had read his books, or one that I don't know if his first, his first book, but his book empower several years ago, and I'm like, oh yeah, man, this guy speaks my language and I love the videos he creates for teachers to just kind of explain how to do things that sometimes teachers are afraid to do. You know like it's hard for teachers to like let go of responsibility, so how do you shift that to let students do it, let them have more agency, and that's really like his wheelhouse, and so he just makes these like really engaging videos short ones but really helpful to kind of break down that process. And then again you know you're like, oh yeah, okay, is that all I have to do, or is this the way I need to think about it? That's super helpful. You're like, oh yeah, okay, is that all I have to do, or is this the way I need to think about it? That's super helpful.
Speaker 2:So I enjoyed talking to him as well, because he's someone I've admired from afar for quite a long time, absolutely, and I feel like I need to go and get his whole back catalog of books and just devour all of them. It's got a lot of good things packed in those pages, yeah.
Speaker 3:A lot, and his videos as well, and his emails, and you know all the things that he creates, all the things. So, like, all the stuff is there. Yeah, we I mean we could talk about all of the guests we've had for this season, but I feel like, is that a good snapshot for?
Speaker 2:folks. I think it's enough of a taster so that they know what's coming, what to look out for, what to get excited about. We have been really lucky this season with our fantastic guests, so I'm really excited for everyone to listen in and get on board and also to have all of the guests back again as well, so we can keep talking to them.
Speaker 3:yes, we'll be having, um, you know, season 25 and we'll have, like we'll still be talking to our people, asking them back to talk more about something, because we have quite a lineup still, you know, for future seasons and, of course, like, if people have requests for us to chat with, we're happy to take requests. You can just send an email to us or, you know, comment wherever. And, yeah, we don't mind reaching out to people to ask them just for a little bit of their time so we can talk about something that's really important in education, absolutely. So you're geared up for season five. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Today's episode was brought to you by Plan Z Professional Learning Services forward-thinking educator support. Find out more at planzplservicescom.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Join Christine and Tammy and guests again next time for more conversations about how to simplify and clarify the responsibilities and tasks in your role. If today's episode helped you rethink, reimagine, reduce or realign something in your practice, share it in a comment or with a colleague. For resources and updates, visit planzeducationcom and subscribe to receive weekly emails. No-transcript.
